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The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

  • Elisebeth Collins Cook – Member, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
  • Mark McWatters – Member, National Credit Union Administration Board 

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Elisebeth Collins Cook, Nominee for Member, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board

Elisebeth Collins Cook is currently Counsel at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, a position she has held since June 2011.  Ms. Cook has been a Member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board since August 2012.  From 2010 to 2011, Ms. Cook was Partner at Freeborn & Peters LLP.  In 2009, Ms. Cook served as Republican Chief Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.  From 2008 to 2009, Ms. Cook served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy (OLP) at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).  She previously served at OLP from 2005 to 2008 in the roles of Acting and Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General, and Senior Counsel.  Prior to joining DOJ, Ms. Cook was an associate with Cooper & Kirk PLLC.  She previously clerked for Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and for Senior Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.  She received a B.A. from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Mark McWatters, Nominee for Member, National Credit Union Administration Board

Mark McWatters is currently the Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs and an adjunct professor at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Dedman School of Law, a position he has held since 2011.  He has also served as an adjunct professor at the SMU Cox School of Business since 2009.  From May 2009 to December 2009, he served as counsel to U.S. Representative Jeb Hensarling.  Mr. McWatters was tax and mergers & acquisition counsel for HBK Capital Management from 2007 to 2009.  From 2004 to 2007, Mr. McWatters was a partner at Patton Boggs and from 1990 to 2001, he was a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski (now Norton Rose Fulbright).  Earlier in his career, he worked for Hughes & Luce (now K&L Gates); McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore; and as a judicial clerk on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Walter Ely.  Since 2012, he has served as a member of the Governing Board of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.  From 2009 to 2011, Mr. McWatters was a member of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel.  Mr. McWatters received a B.B.A. in Accounting from Texas Christian University, an M.B.A. from Michigan State University, a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, an LL.M. from Columbia University School of Law, and an LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law.